WEC: Nissan to delay return to LMP1 until technical issues are resolved

The vehicle faced its first competitive outing at Le Mans back in June, but struggled throughout the race thanks to the car’s relative lack of development and unforeseen issues during the race. Terminal issues with the team’s vendor-supplied ERS system forced its three-car fleet to run without the power needed to keep pace with the factory efforts from Porsche, Audi, and Toyota, and the decision to replace the ERS system with a different solution for the remainder of 2015 has also been scratched. “We are racers and we want to compete, but we also want to be competitive”.

Nissan today announced it will delay its planned return to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMP1 class in the GT-R LM Nismo. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver on its promise, turning in a severely disappointing performance at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Lapping with its twin-turbo V6 engine as the sole form of propulsion, the No. 22 Nissan was reportedly within five seconds of the best lap turned by a non-ERS P1 vehicle during qualifying for the 2014 “Lone Star Le Mans” WEC event. Combined with a clutch-adjustment problem on one vehicle and a collision with a flying object at 200 miles per hour, it was a rough day at Le Mans for the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo program.

“We know people will be disappointed but be assured that nobody is more disappointed than us”, NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani stated in an official release. When you innovate, you don’t give up at the first hurdle.

“We’ve said it before but innovation hurts”, said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO.

The automaker emphasized that this only affects the LM P1 program. The beauty of this programme is that people have got behind us and they are willing us to succeed.

Publicly debuted in February this year, the GT-R LM NISMO was a greatly anticipated entrant into the LMP1 field.

Much of Nissan’s test work with the GT-R LM NISMO will continue at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and “a decision on the date for Nissan’s return to the World Endurance Championship will be made in due course, depending on the progress of the test programme”.